Ign!te

Ignite! Daily Intervention - Math (Comparing)

The Intervention is used immediately before a lesson in the classroom or group setting. Its goal is to prime the student for learning and retention.The implementation of the Ignite! Intervention will depend on the goals for the session.

For instance, a Math class will use a different warmup and focusing drills than will an English class; a class experienced in the Ignite! method will use more advanced exercises than a new group.

Step #1 – Mobility.A 'mobility' warmup will include movements of all joints in all planes. Mobility includes – but is not limited to- stretching and unweighted rehearsal of the movements to be used in the workout.

Step #2 – Increase the Heart Rate. Challenging calisthenics, running, or other exercise to elevate the heart rate. This is a triggerfor chemicals like BDNF and IGF-1, and has the effect of sprinkling Miracle-Gro on the neurons.

Step #3 – Perform the NeuroMotive Intervention designed for the subject matter.In the chart below, you will find specific skills for eye tracking, hearing, speech, memory, and handwriting. (Appendix 'C' in the NeuroMotive Coach Textbook, "Cognitive Enrichment Through Movement," has 50 sample Interventions for each sensory input.)

Step #4: Create The Optimal Mindset and Learning Environment. Using the methods from earlier in this text, reinforce the Growth Mentality, the Practice Paradigm, and other of the several points made here.

Step #5: Teach the Lesson

Step #6: Perform Anchoring Exercises.  Using contextual-generating tools, writing 750 words, journaling, or other memory techniques (see textbook,) make the lesson 'stick.'

Step #7: Cool Down with Easy Stretching and Water Intake.

All Comparing Body Awareness/Coordination workouts include:1) Locomotor movement; 2) 3 variations of a complex movement eg. (Squat – narrow stance, wide stance, toes out); and 3) the complex movement (squats)

Today's Math Intervention:

10m Bear Crawl

2 narrow stance squats

2 wide stance squats

2 toes out squats

2 natural stance squats

3 rounds

Weekly In-Class Challenge: May 30

In our NeuroMotive Coach Textbook, "Cognitive Enrichment Through Movement," Section V is devoted to delivering the Ignite! method in a classroom setting.

In our research with a local Board of Education, we found it very useful to explain the rationale and method to students involved in the Ignite! workouts. This improved "buy-in" - adherence - and encouraged mass participation. 

These 'challenges' are to be done daily for one week, at the start of the school day. Shorter "interventions" are scheduled a the beginning of each new class, and are subject- or skill-specific(as you'll see tomorrow.)

Week 1: Movement's Effects On The Brain.

Key points to tell students:

- The two sides of the brain, and their role.

- How their brains developed through movement; how their reflexes led to lifting, turning, reaching, standing, and feeding, which allowed for exploring. “Physical movements allowed your brain to develop the necessary skills to learn about your environment.”

- Sensory tendencies and dominance which lead to their current cognitive map.

- Functioning can be improved by being aware of using both sides of the brain when listening, reading, writing, exercising, daily activities.

- The Practice Paradigm. Practicing trying to write with the wrong hand will spark a novel, focused, engaged experience, for example, but can still be mastered at any age.

- How to switch on their 'focus'

- How Bright Spots work.

 No Equipment 

Week 1 Challenge of the week: L- spend 1 min in paleo chair M – 1 min plank Up – amrap push ups in 1 min Mob – couch stretch – sink stretch CM – burpee Ag – 1 foot hopping and skipping

 Definitions: 

L - Lower body    M - Midline    Up  - Upper Body   Mob - Mobility   CM - Metabolic    Ag - Agility

 

 

 

Interventions and Weekly Challenges

Exercise that raises your heart rate improves long-term cognition, memory, and brain development on a macro scale.  That's been demonstrated extensively through John Ratey, PhD's research, and in several subsequent studies. It's gaining attention in the mainstream media; nearly every day, we're forwarded something from the New York Times or Washington Post or Toronto Star about the benefits of movement for learning.

However, Ignite! takes this a step further, by combining the benefits of CrossFit with more frequent, subject-specific 'Interventions,' to be done immediately at the start of class. We issue weekly 'challenges' to students as a daily warmup and to keep them engaged.

Our own research from 2006-2008 on participation and adherence (published in the CrossFit Journal) clearly showed an improvement with the use of CrossFit-style workouts. Where research centred around general movement - usually, jogging or skipping before school - has shown clear and consistent brain benefit, Ignite! takes the program three steps further.

Starting Monday, we'll post weekly challenges and one intervention per day. Each are convered extensively - as well as the Ignite! Academy Enrichment program - in our two-day NeuroMotive Coach Certification (details to the right.)

NeuroMotive Coach Certification - Akron, OH August 6-7

The Ignite! Certification Team will be hosting a NeuroMotive Coach Certification at CrossFit Akron August 6 and 7th. 

Register online here.

Thanks to Josh and Co. for offering this amazing program to their members, local Teachers, and other Affiliates!

 

Public Speaking

Frequently, the fear closest to mind in research polls is "public speaking." What's the second-greatest fear in 2011 society? Death. 

Death is less-feared than speaking in public. This is a startling shame.

Partially due to the amygdala's response to the need to fit in - to not expose oneself to possible differentiation from the tribe - public speaking is horrifying to children, and most adults. As with everything else, though, practice is the best way to overcome nervousness at performance time. 

Since good public speakers have a huge advantage in the Information Age, it makes sense to practice presentation skills, memory, and charisma in an educational setting. Dale Carnegie built a career on teaching people to speak in public, starting 70 years ago; his books are still absolutely relevant for anyone in a leadership role. The Toastmasters is a nonprofit group dedicated to helping their members learn to speak well in public, but their members typically start at one end of the spectrum or the other extreme. Either:

• They're already confident enough to join a group like Toastmasters, and are merely looking to refine their already-present skills, or
• They're so terrified that Toastmasters is a last-resort lifeline, like rehab. They've bottomed out.

Speaking in front of peers could easily be practiced in elementary schools. Unfortunately, this is the most common case:

Once per year, a student has to present their "oral" in front of their peers. They have to talk for precisely two minutes, or three minutes... not more, and not less. They must memorize their talk verbatim; they may rely on cue cards to help "trigger" their memories. The class must remain stalk still and silent. The teacher will assign a grade, despite a complete lack of practice time or coaching, based not only on knowledge, but delivery. 

Not stressful at all. Not one bit.

While early Greek school models stressed Speech or Debate as one of four foundations of learning (along with Memory, which is also ignored in modern curriculum,) it's now largely ignored until the point where it's tested. No lesson in public speaking; no memory practice; no fun.

Students have become so stressed by 'Orals' that they're frequently allowed to skip out, or do a 'group presentation' - I hide behind you, and you hide behind me, and we share accountability - which takes the student further from the ability to speak well in public.

Here's how we handle Public Speaking at the Ignite! Academy:

• Students stand up to answer questions from the Coach.
• Shouting during warmup exercise (counting reps out loud, making animal sounds while crawling, yelling birthdays while playing catch in a circle, playing Zip-Zap-Zop)
• Points-based 'AMFAP' for time (As Many Facts As Possible, in 30 seconds, for instance)
• Simple games combined with sprints ("Wheel of Orrin," in which competitors sprint around pylons, and can guess a letter on a Wheel of Fortune board every time they return to the start)
• "DataTag" - when a student is tagged, they have to recall a seven-digit number while others listen
• Spelling Bee variations with physical combinations
• Dramatic plays
• Speed-memorization of poems, cards, numbers, words in foreign languages...and recitation
• Peer-interviewing
• Karaoke. Yes, Karaoke. Teams allowed on this one.
• Role-playing delivery (dress up as a character, then deliver a two-minute speech on a topic that's unrelated. For example, Abe Lincoln speaking about Britney Spears. Hilarious.)
• Hopper Speech - 200 topics in a bingo hopper; participants have to last for 1 minute on their topic without saying "uh...," or pausing for longer than 2 seconds
• Speed Speech - students have to deliver 5 facts on a randomly-chosen topic as fast as possible
• Themed topics - mock political campaigns - reporters v. politicians - Barbara Walters, 48 Hours Mystery....
• Auctioneering
• Storytelling
• Lying (probably one of the favourites.....)
• Speed Introductions, using facts about other people to 'introduce' them to group members. For instance, they may introduce one to another using first name, grandparent's name, birthdate....
• Whose Line Is It Anyway? - comedic interplay without scripts. Participants must answer, "Yes, and...." before their next line. 
• Point/Counterpoint: a debate method where each participant may make only one point at a time.

There are others, by the dozen. As students age, they may be given problems to solve through speech; for example, deliver a locker-room motivational speech; convince smokers in your workplace to move away from entryways, etc. When students begin with fun practice, it's easier to move them to meaningful and relevant habits later. 

The NeuroMotive Coach Manual

It's been published. While we await our first copies at the Academy, we're already organizing material for the NeuroMotive Therapist text!

What's the difference?

A NeuroMotive Coach will work one-on-one with clients, in a classroom setting, in a CrossFit Box....they'll perform Enrichment services, school Interventions, and personal training. For 80% of Certification attendees, the NeuroMotive Coach Certification is all they require to deliver real change to their clients.

A NeuroMotive Therapist, though, will work with head injuries, rehabilitation for stroke and dementia.... conditions for which a background in Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, or other pathologies is quite helpful. A NMT operates as part of a team, typically, and is funded by insurance companies through Treatment Plans for their clients. In the NMT Textbook, we'll address the issues of funding; how to write Treatment Plans and Assessments; and cover other administrative tasks, as well as a vastly-expanded curriculum on rehabilitation.

As we build up the Ignite! Academy, we're very excited to begin delivery of the NeuroMotive Coach and NeuroMotive Therapist Certifications. Some will Certify before they start their own Academy, and that's fine; administration at our end doesn't mean that NM Coaches can't start their practice today. Feel free to chat with us about our progress! Email tyler@ignitegym.com, or call 705-256-1344.

Upcoming Ignite! NeuroMotive Coach Certification Weekends

The Ignite! program has exploded.

Conceived six years ago, our method for combining CrossFit exercise with cognitive training has been filtered, refined, tested, and applied over the last year. The results?

• Two studies on outcomes sponsored by a local school Board.
• Ignite! Enrichment programming in ten local schools.
• Four separate insurance companies funding Ignite! as part of a patient's recovery process after serious head injury.
• An online delivery system that includes video conference, interactive whiteboarding, testing and demonstration.
• A full textbook to meet the requests for NeuroMotive Coach Certification, and NeuroMotive Therapist Certification textbook on the way.
• A licensure agreement for Ignite! Academy Affiliates.
• Visiting schools to the Ignite! Academy, with interschool competition coming in September.
• Our first Continuing Education Course, to be delivered remotely through our online system, already in the works (Brain Nutrition.) Our second is in the contract stage....
• Ignite! Academy Enrichment programs - including classes for kids centring on Speaking, Money, Drama, Logic, and extra reading and math coming in September.

 
It's been a miraculous year. While the mass media seems to produce more information every day on the benefits of exercise for the brain, our Educational model struggles to include an hour of gym time every week. Parents seeking extracurricular enrichment (or help) for their kids show up every week, asking for more programs. As several parents will tell you, Ignite! has literally meant the difference between keeping their kids in school and the not-appealing alternative.

There have been a lot of sleepless nights between last September and now, but we're fighting the good fight, and that's a powerful stimulator. We attract coaches and therapists who 'want to do the right thing' for their clients. Ignite! is more fun; works much more efficiently; and gives its students more powerful brains FOREVER.

The NeuroMotive Coach (NMC) Certification is appropriate for teachers, personal trainers, CrossFit coaches, and other Coaches. The emphasis of the NMC Certification is application of the Ignite! methods in the classroom, gym, or other non-therapy setting. This is the "in-the-trenches" certification for delivery of the Ignite! program in a small- or large-group scenario, or one-on-one. A prerequisite for the NeuroMotive Therapist Certificate.

The Ignite! NeuroMotive Coach Certificate costs $795 CDN. Interested in hosting? Email chris@catalystgym.com .

By request, we're currently offering two Weekend Certification Courses for the Ignite! NeuroMotive Coach Certification:

June 11/12 - Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario - Register Online Here.

July 9/10 - Shrewsbury, MA - Register Online Here.

For information on the rights and privileges afforded by becoming a NeuroMotive Coach, click on the 'Certification and Affiliation' link to the right. Questions? Call 705-256-1344, or email tyler@ignitegym.com .

Subjectivity

In the deep, deep pile of data we're generating for research, I'm struck by the degree of difference that exists between teachers who are viewing the same student at precisely the same time.

In our first data collection period, we were graced with the presence of 6-10 teenagers from a local high school. These were the 'at-risk' class: the kids on the very cusp of dropout status, or who moved back and forth between "student" and "nonstudent" on a weekly basis. For most, it's their last chance to finish their diploma.

Each week, their teacher - a very positive role model, who went far out of her way to round the students up, drive them to the Academy, and train WITH them every week - had another teacher as a 'helper.' From a research perspective, this is terrific: it adds an element of objectivity, since the 'helper' teacher wouldn't have a contextual background on the students' progress IN the gym.

While the results are overwhelmingly positive (they'll be posted elsewhere before I post them here,) some of the comments from "helper" teachers - and scores - shed real light on the subjectivity of the grading process.

As a background, the grading Rubric in Ontario is measured on a scale of levels, from 1 to 4, with each level matching a corresponding letter grade. 50-59% is Level 1; 60-69% is Level II; 70-79% is Level III; and 80%+ is a Level IV (an 'A' grade.) Unnecessarily complex? I'll leave that for you to determine. 

Within each level is some variability. For instance, a "2.5" grade would be common. Consider that: if a Level II is 60-69%, and a Level III is 70-79%, what is a Level 2.5? Is it 65%, or has the student gone beyond Level II by a half-grade, and should be awarded a 75%?  I'm sure an Ontario teacher can clear this up for me before we publish our research.

That issue aside, there were a large proportion of instances where two separate viewers scored the same student, on the same day, and reported a difference of two whole Levels.

While we weren't measuring hard numbers, and the categories DID lend themselves to subjectivity, they weren't completely obscure:

1. Attention
2. Effort
3. Independent Work
4. Self-Confidence
5. Initiative
6. Participation
7. Conflict Resolution

Each category was clearly defined with a guide for scoring beforehand. It's possible that not all "helpers" read the scoring guide; how else would you explain a score of "1" and another score of "3.5" in the 'Effort' category for the same student during the same 30-minute window?

In the end, we made the decision to average both graders' scores for each session. However, 'helpers' were unaware that the data would be compiled for anything other than the student's end-of-semester grade.

The comments on each daily rubric were even more enlightening. Teachers' attitudes on a particular day would change; teachers and 'helpers' are human, too, and an argument with their spouse earlier in the day, for instance, could have given them a different perspective. This makes our decision to average daily scores for each student even more valid.

The point here isn't to complain, but to notice: if a child's being marked this way by two different set of eyes at the same instant, imagine how they're graded in the classroom, where one teacher's opinion is the only thing that defines their grade......

Dyslexia

From the Ignite! NeuroMotive Coach Textbook (see Certifications and Affiliation, right):

  If you're a parent, you've likely been given the advice to play classical music for your baby, even before they're born. By using the logic above, it appears that this type of aural stimulation WILL help....but it won't automatically make your baby smarter. Rather, it will increase their POTENTIAL for intellect by fully developign their ability to listen. In turn, the vestibular system's ability to accurately receive and process information gathered by auditory cues is enhanced. It's not a guarantee of brilliance; it's just providing the best foundation possible for growth later. Children with reduced sensory acuity, poor hearing, and balance due to early-life infections don't fully experience their environments. This means a limit on the information they receive, the stimulus they're given, and ultimately the connections they're able to make.

 When a child is over-sensitive to environmental stimuli, the sensitivity manifests itself as a disability, or an inability to process the information being received. Dyslexia is an inability to break words down into sounds; link sounds into symbols; and do these things automatically.

 Over-sensitivities to environmental stimuli can be exacerbated by ear infections, high-carbohydrate diets from sugar and years, stress, and antibiotics. These factors affect normal vestibular function in the inner ear; balance; and eye tracking, making reading and language very difficult to learn. Lack of cerebellar/vestibular development shows up in the muscles that control movement of the eyes, causing them to misfocus on letters and words.

A malformed sense of vision makes learning challenging. But, as Carl Schramm asks, "Are these people more visionary; can they see things differently?"

Schramm is featured in Journey Into Dyslexia, a new film airing tonight on HBO2. The film presents several prominent dyslexic adults, such as Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, Henry Ford, and Ted Turner.

Entrepreneurship among dyslexics has long been a topic of study. In 2004, researchers from the Cass Business School in London found that 35% of US Entrepreneurs surveyed identified themselves as dyslexic.

"The study also concluded that dyslexics were more likely than nondyslexics to delegate authority and to excel in oral communication and problem solving and were twice as likely to own two or more businesses," according to The New York Times, which first reported on the research back in 2007.  

Identified early as 'poor readers,' many business writers and scientists hypothesize that a weakness in decoding the written word leads to more reliance on verbalism, social cues, and instinct. Though a person with dyslexia may struggle within the confines of the modern educational system, neuroplasticity and practice can help develop success where it counts - the huge world beyond.

Progressive Educational Initiatives

When we launched Ignite! into the local educational system in September, we had some ideas about how schools could integrate the Ignite! program. We suggested visits to classrooms to demonstrate the NeuroMotive coaching. Since then, several schools have approached our coaches with different ideas. Among the best:

• Regularly-scheduled classroom visits (on the last Friday of each month,) building anticipation among the students
• Establishment of fitness "leaders" among older students. One local school bused fifteen eighth-graders to our Ignite Academy for a lesson in leadership. Their job: absorb as much information about movement as possible, and lead a weekly exercise session at their school for the rest of the semester. A very interesting and positive approach to learning. The emphasis was not on the quality of teaching they could provide to the rest of the students upon their return, but on practicing leadership and learning things THEMSELVES through translation.
• A monthly (or end-of-semester) "challenge" visit. A high school located two hours away has been training to perform "Fight Gone Bad" at the Ignite Academy at the end of the semester. Attendance at Friday's fitness/gym class is close to 100% as the students "train" for their big "fight." Their teacher is including a bit of mental challenge each week.  One of the key chapters in our textbook focuses on delivery, and novelty/event challenges are a huge boost to adherence.
• A monthly "tournament of Champions" where a school buses its students to the Academy at the end of each month to compete at different events. The emphasis is on diversity: the winner of the pushups challenge, for instance, is likely not the winner of the Tire Flip Challenge, the Agility challenge, or the QuickDraw Math Challenge.
• After a one-time visit by a NeuroMotive Coach, a local school uses part of its educational materials budget to purchase 100 skipping ropes for students.
• A class for youth who struggle with math holds its Ignite! classes outdoors. This was one of our Brightest Spots all semester: marginalized kids cheering for one another on our Box Jump challenge. The data for this group isn't yet available for publication, but the results - math scores, attention, adherence, and sujective feedback - is VERY positive.
• A school for students on the fringe of the educational system launches a study on attendance, adherence, and participation. Two teachers drive the students to the Ignite! Academy twice per week for three months, using a rundown school van and their own vehicles. By the end of the semester, the students are trying to start their own T-shirt printing business to buy exercise equipment for their school so they can do CrossFit onsite.
• An autistic student who was removed from the Educational System in seventh grade is segued back into school by a teacher who believes in the Ignite! approach. He attends one math class as a trial - at his own age level - and is currently receiving a 78% grade.
• Teachers at three area high schools are collaborating with one of our Coaches to kick off a CrossFit extramural league.

These are all ideas that have come from the Ignite! community: teachers, students, and Therapists working together. All they need is a spark.....